


Rainbows Are(n't) Forever

by amporasbitch



Category: DRAMAtical Murder
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Angst, M/M, Tiny bit of blood but not much
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-11-15
Updated: 2014-11-15
Packaged: 2018-02-25 11:13:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,369
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2619695
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/amporasbitch/pseuds/amporasbitch
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A KouAo fanfic based on Tumblr user apharthurkirklands's AU idea: "au where everything is black and white until you meet your soulmate. ADDITIONALLY: when your soulmate dies, the world goes back to black and white."</p>
            </blockquote>





	Rainbows Are(n't) Forever

**Author's Note:**

> I gave you tags, gave you the additional note on the AU, so that's all you're getting in warning. Strangely enough, a bunch of things that happen in this fic give the reader the responsibility of interpreting them. On that note, happy reading~!

It was a normal day for Koujaku in every way. It had begun with waking up next to Aoba, of course. Koujkau always woke up before him, and he couldn’t deny how cute Aoba was while he slept. He gently pecked him on the forehead to wake him, and then went to make breakfast. Despite Koujaku’s good morning kiss, Aoba wasn’t fully awake until after he’d gotten two cups of coffee and some scrambled eggs into his system. When breakfast was over, the two parted ways with a kiss (this time on the lips), Aoba going to Heibon and Koujkau going to his hair salon.

Koujaku was waiting for his next appointment. She was running late, so Koujaku decided to busy himself by sweeping up cut hair until she arrived. Given how mindless the task was, Koujaku quickly drifted away from the floor and back to Aoba.

They were soulmates. Meant to be from the moment they were born. This wasn’t only something that Koujaku thought, it was a fact. Before he met Aoba, he could only see the world in black and white. But the second he first laid eyes on him as a young child, his world exploded into vivid color. He’d babbled to the other kids about his newfound color vision, but none of them had understood-except a little blue-haired boy named Aoba. He was just as excited as Koujaku, if not even more so. The two ran around the playground, marveling at all the new colors filling their vision, and finding time to talk to each other about themselves in the process. When Koujaku’s mother picked him up later, he relayed the day’s events to her in a fervor, words flying a mile a minute. His mother had understood immediately what had happened, and once she heard about his newfound friend, she had the whole story. She explained to Koujaku that everyone saw in black and white, but when they saw their soulmate for the first time, they saw in color. She told him he’d see in color forever.

Koujaku hadn’t quite understood then. He’d found the prospect of mushy romance about as appealing as every other young boy did-that is, not at all. And the thought of it being Aoba was even crazier. They’d only just meant, and they were both boys! But his mother simply smiled and patted his head, assuring him that as weird as it sounded, it was the truth.

Well, not the whole truth exactly. His mother omitted the fact that Koujaku’s vision would return to black and white if he lost his soulmate. But Koujaku didn’t blame her for that; it had been hard enough for him to wrap his head around the concept as it was. While Koujaku definitely didn’t want to lose Aoba, he figured that the age gap between them would spare him the loss of color vision. But when that happened, then Aoba would have to be without his soulmate and color vision instead, and that thought made Koujaku’s chest tighten. He pushed it out of his mind as he brushed scraps of hair off the dustpan into the trashcan.

His friends were rather envious of Koujaku, in that he’d found his soulmate so early in life, and gotten all the benefits that came with it early as well. Most of the people he’d known hadn’t met their soulmate until high school, and some even later than that. His friend Mizuki, in fact, had yet to find his soulmate at all, and he wasn’t much younger than Koujaku. He maintained that he’d find his soulmate before long, given how many people passed through his bar and tattoo parlor on a daily basis. Koujaku hoped he’d find his soulmate-whoever they were-soon.

At that moment, the bell above the door tinkled rather loudly, signaling the late arrival of his next appointment. Koujaku put away the broom and dustpan as the woman dashed to him and apologized profusely. He assured her it was no big deal, and hushed Beni when he began to rag on her for being late. Once she was assured, Koujaku got to work. She wanted a simple trim, she explained, but more importantly, she also wanted to change her look by getting her hair dyed cotton candy pink. Koujaku was a little surprised-he’d done her hair before, and she’d never wanted anything so drastic-but was assured that she’s thought a lot about it and decided she wanted it…provided it could be a temporary color, because she wasn’t completely sure yet. Koujaku couldn’t help but chuckle as she told her that yes, that was possible. Beni pointed out that she was crazy. Koujaku accused him of trying to chase away his customers. The woman laughed.

As he mixed the dye and applied it to her hair, he found himself rather excited for what the outcome would be. He quite enjoyed it when his customers wanted extreme colors in their hair. Perhaps it was because of Aoba’s lovely blue hair. Maybe a part of him was still a child, fascinated by the all the beautiful colors in the world. Possibly both. Whatever the reason, Koujaku was very interested to see how this bright pink color would suit his customer.

Once he’d let the dye sit properly, he washed it out of the woman’s hair. He smiled as he saw the brilliant color the dye left behind. It looked great. He knew she’d love it. And when he finished washing the dye out and brought her back to the chair to finish her hair, the squeal of delight she let out at the sight of her hair proved him right. She couldn’t wipe the happy grin off her face as he trimmed her split ends and then blow-dried her newly colorful hair. Even Beni had to admit that she looked pretty nice. The look on the woman’s face had been nearly smug.

She paid him gratefully and included a generous tip, for which Koujaku thanked her. She pointed out that it was the least she could do, what with how great her hair color came out, and how late she’d been to the appointment. Koujaku shook his head, pretending to be exasperated, but with a smile still on his face. She laughed at that, and then left, waving goodbye as she did so.

The exact moment the door closed behind her, it felt like a light switch turned off.

Koujaku’s eyes widened. He looked around his salon in a panic. He blinked rapidly, trying to clear his vision. He raised his hands to his eyes and rubbed them until he saw stars. But it was no good.

Everything was black and white.

While the loss of color in his vision was nothing short of terrifying and upsetting, his heart sank not for his vision, but for what it meant.

“No,” he choked out.

“Koujaku, what the hell’s going on??” Beni cried, fluttering to his owner, clearly unnerved by his strange behavior.

Every Allmate was programmed to see color, no matter what type they were. That way they could be as helpful as possible to their owners. To Beni, Koujaku realized, everything was normal.

“Everything’s black and white,” Koujaku gasped. His dread and fear were building by the second.

“Oh man!” Beni yelped, immediately realizing the implications.

Koujkau went to call Aoba using his coil.

“Hey, Koujaku…” Beni murmured, as if he wanted to stop his owner but didn’t quite have the heart.

Of course, Aoba didn’t answer. Not the first time, or the second, the third, the fourth-

“Koujaku, isn’t that enough!?” Beni suddenly cried. “If something did happen to Aoba, we won’t be able to find out from him.”

Koujaku, who’d been about to dial Aoba’s coil for the fifth time, paused. As panicked as he was, he realized that Beni was right.

“I’ll call Haga-san then.” Koujaku decided, opening up the shop owner’s contact. Aoba should still be at work at this time, Haga-san had to know something.

“Good idea!” Beni agreed.

Koujaku called, half-expecting Haga-san not to answer either. He was relieved when the older man picked up. He peered at Koujaku confusedly.

“…Koujaku-kun?” He asked. “I don’t believe you’ve ever called me before. Is something the matter?”

That was true. Aoba had given Koujaku his number in case the need presented itself. And while Haga-san and Koujaku had met several times and were on good terms, it would be a stretch to say that they were friends. Friendly acquaintances was a better word for their relationship. After all, the only thing they had in common was Aoba. Speaking of…

“Haga-san, is Aoba there?” He asked, trying to keep down the panic in his voice.

“No, he’s on a delivery,” Haga-san replied, “But he should be back before too long. Did you have something you needed to tell him?”

Horrible scenarios began racing through Koujaku’s head with this new information.

“Not exactly,” Koujaku managed to answer. “Well, thanks anyway.”

Maybe it was cowardly, but he didn’t want to be the one to tell Haga-san that Aoba was probably dead.

“Anytime, Koujaku.” Haga-san replied. The look on his face made it clear that he knew he wasn’t getting the whole story, but he ended the call without saying anything more.

“Now what?” Koujaku muttered, thinking aloud. “I could call Noiz, but I doubt he’d know anything…that guy Clear might, but he doesn’t have a coil…”

“Oh, I know!” Beni cried, fluttering around again. “I can’t believe I didn’t think of this before!”

“What?” Koujaku asked.

“Ren!” Beni answered. “Ren’s gotta know what happened!”

“Ah, of course.” Koujaku replied, wondering why he hadn’t thought of it either.

But when Beni tried to message him, he received an immediate but ominous reply.

_The Allmate you have contacted is no longer in service._

“Oh man,” Beni whined, “Did something happen to Ren, too??”

“Is there any way you can find out where he is?” Koujaku asked. He was still scared, but he was slowly gaining more control over his emotions. Enough so that he could begin to think straight, and enough to ignore the lack of color around him.

“Well, maybe.” Beni answered thoughtfully. “Let’s see if my GPS monitor can link up with the origin of the message…”

After several moments, Beni suddenly flapped his wings in excitement.

“I’ve got it!” He cried. “I sent the info to your coil.”

Sure enough, Koujaku’s coil beeped, signaling the message’s arrival. His coil converted the coordinates into a location on a map.

“Alright, let’s go,” Koujaku murmured, anxiety twisting his heart as he and Beni left the salon.

~~~~~

The scene Koujaku walked into was positively chaotic.

There was a huge crowd gathered around a part of the street, with police officers keeping everyone from getting to close to the scene of the accident. Their cars were parked around the crowd, and an ambulance was there as well. As Koujaku pushed through the crowd, with Beni on his shoulder to prevent the two from being separated, Koujaku began piecing together events from what he heard from the people around him.

“I was right there! Some car came out of nowhere!”

“What are the odds? There aren’t even that many cars around here.”

“I don’t think they even stopped. There’s no car here now except the police cars.”

“It was awful! I called for help, but the ambulance would’ve had to go at warp speed to make it in time…”

As Koujaku approached the edge of the crowd, Beni left his shoulder and flew to the scene, unable to contain his patience. He let out a heart-wrenching wail at the sight. Koujaku followed after him, and terror gripped his heart when he saw what had happened.

He didn’t need to have color visions to know what all the dark stains on the ground were. The blood was everywhere. Also spread around were metal parts, some with dark fur on them.

No one but Koujaku noticed Beni mournfully nestle against what might have been a paw.

There was a body in a stretcher, a white blanket obscuring it. Medical officers were loading it into an ambulance. Koujaku’s mind was a blur as he walked into the scene and explained who he was. But when one of the paramedics moved the white blanket off the body’s face to allow for identification, the entire world screeched to a halt.

It _was_ Aoba. His beautiful Aoba. His hazel eyes were closed, his lips slightly parted. He would have looked like he was sleeping if not for the awful gash in the side of his head. Aoba’s lovely hair was caked with dried blood, and some of it had even reached the pale skin of his forehead.

“It’s him,” Koujaku barely managed to gasp. He didn’t try to stop the tears running down his cheeks.

According to witnesses, explained the paramedic, he’d been crossing the street. A speeding car had approached seemingly out of nowhere, and Aoba didn’t have any time to get out of the way. Without getting into details, his injuries were severe. It may have taken him only two or three minutes for him to die at the most. The Allmate had apparently been crushed under the car’s wheel and destroyed instantly.

Koujaku felt sick. His mind replayed the morning’s events over and over. Kissing Aoba’s forehead to wake him. Running a hand through his hair. Teasing him for not being a morning person. Kissing him again when he left for work. What was the last thing he’d said to him? _Have a good day. I love you._ But that wasn’t enough. He could have told Aoba he loved him a hundred times and it wouldn’t have been enough. He wanted to turn back time. He wanted to go back to this morning and beg Aoba not to go to work today, convince him to stay home, they could have a day to themselves, just this once, work be damned. Koujaku would give anything for that chance. His arms, his legs, hell, he’d give up the ability to see color and remain swamped in gray for the rest of his life as long as he could still see Aoba’s smiling face.

He gave the police the information to contact Haga-san, Tae-san, and Mizuki. He couldn’t stomach the thought of telling them himself. He also requested that Ren-however much of Ren they could collect, that is-be given to Tae-san. It was up to her to decide what would become of the Allmate since Aoba couldn’t.

Once he’d done that, there wasn’t anything else he could do. There was no chance of him being able to go back to work-he dimly realized that he’d have to cancel quite a few appointments-but the thought of going back to the home he’d shared with Aoba made his heart clench in sadness. But there really wasn’t anywhere else he could go.

He turned away as the ambulance left with Aoba only to see Beni still on the ground, sitting next to a part of Ren. He was still and quiet, a jarring difference from the loud, exuberant bird-type Allmate he knew. But then, Ren was Beni’s best friend, so of course he’d be upset. Koujaku, for all his own sorrow, could only imagine what his Allmate was thinking.

He approached Beni slowly so he wouldn’t startle him. But the little bird didn’t move, not even slightly.

“Beni…” Koujaku murmured.

“Ren’s gone,” Beni whimpered, voice weak.

Koujaku felt a surge of sympathy overwhelm him. Without thinking, he scooped up the little bird and held him close. Beni made a small sound of surprise at being picked up, but snuggled against Koujaku’s kimono. Birds couldn’t physically cry, but Koujaku suspected that if they could, he’d feel little tears seeping into the red fabric (at least, it used to be red).

“I know it hurts,” Koujaku whispered, gently petting Beni’s head. “I’m hurting, too. But we can’t stay here.”

“But Ren…” Beni cried, looking up at his owner. “They’ll throw him away! They’ll throw him away like he’s nothing!!”

“Don’t worry Beni, I spoke to them about that.” Koujaku murmured. “They’ll take his parts to Tae-san. I’m sure she won’t just throw them away.”

Beni seemed satisfied by that answer, but his sadness was still evident. He buried his head into Koujaku’s kimono again. It hurt Koujaku to notice that the tiny Allmate looked even smaller in his grief.

Koujaku cradled Beni as stood up.

“Let’s go home,” he said, suddenly feeling more exhausted than he’d ever been in his life.

~~~~~

Stepping through the door into his house was even more painful than Koujaku thought it would be. Everything he saw reminded him of Aoba, regardless of whether it belonged to him or not.

He drank a lot that night, hoping that the alcohol would push Aoba out of his mind. Instead, it made Aoba the only thing he could physically think about.

He went to bed much earlier than usual. When he fell asleep, he dreamt of Aoba.

When he woke up, the dream as well as a hangover in his head, it took him a very long moment to remember why Aoba wasn’t lying beside him. Once he did remember, he could only cry.

That was the extent of Koujaku’s routine for the next week. He turned off his coil once people started calling him. He drank all the alcohol he could find. Ordinarily Beni might have tried to snap him out of it, but he wasn’t feeling much better. He spent most of his time in sleep mode, so Koujaku was left to do as he pleased. Sometimes he’d call Aoba’s coil, just to hear his voice saying that he wasn’t available right now, and to leave a message, and he’d call back later.

After a week, something unexpected happened. It was night, and Koujaku had finally run out of alcohol. He wasn’t nearly as drunk as he wanted to be, but the thought of going to a bar full of people didn’t appeal to him in the slightest. He decided to go outside and have a smoke, something he hadn’t done in a while. Every time he wanted to, he remembered Aoba making a comment of how bad that was for his health. Koujaku chuckled bitterly to himself. He hadn’t left the house in days and spent most of that time inside drinking. Why should he worry about smoking damaging his health? With that thought, he lit a cigarette as he stepped outside.

As he took the first drag, he heard a strange sound in the air. He listened closely, and found that the noise was, in fact, rather familiar. It was the sound of someone singing. He’d heard the words quite a few times before, but this time they sounded much sadder. Mournful, even. But he recognized the voice, and turned in its direction.

Sure enough, sitting on a bench across the street, was Clear. His mask was on, of course, yet somehow his voice was strong enough to be heard. His transparent umbrella was closed and laid against his leg. He continued singing for a few moments longer, until he seemed to sense he was being watched. He’d been staring up at the night sky, but he looked down to meet Koujaku’s eyes. He stopped singing.

The two men stared at each other, neither one moving or saying a word. The silence dragged for what must have been at least a minute. Koujaku considered speaking to Clear to at least break the quiet, but he didn’t know what to say. And despite the gas mask giving a creepy look to Clear as it always did, the man looked as if the slightest movement or sound would startle him, as if he were a deer.

It wasn’t an uncommon occurrence to find Clear singing to himself outside their house at night. As odd as it was, Aoba never seemed to mind, so Koujaku decided he didn’t mind either. Clear’s singing voice wasn’t exactly unpleasant, after all. But normally, he’d greet Koujaku if he saw him, always with a childish attitude. This behavior was unlike the white-haired man in so many ways.

Eventually Clear stood up and opened his umbrella, moving it to rest over his shoulder. He didn’t speak, but continued to stare pointedly at Koujaku. The gas mask prevented Koujaku from reading his expression. All at once, Clear turned away and dashed off. In a moment, he was gone.

It was then that something changed inside Koujaku.

He couldn’t explain it, not even to himself, but he suddenly decided to stop hurting himself like he’d been doing. What would Aoba say if he knew? Koujaku made up his mind to get his act together. He snuffed out the barely-used cigarette and went back inside. As he dropped the cigarette into an ashtray, he considered turning his coil back on and calling back those who called him during the week. But, he realized, it was so late that most of them would be asleep by now. He’d have to do that tomorrow.

He went to bed thinking about his plans for the next day, and fell asleep with a lighter heart than he had the night before, or many nights before that, for that matter.

~~~~~

That morning when he woke up, his resolve to get himself back on track hadn't diminished. After he got properly dressed, he turned on his coil. He’d gotten calls from Mizuki, several members of Benishigure, and even a few from Tae-san. He decided to call her back first before she got too angry with him.

She was plenty angry with him anyhow, he soon discovered. She scolded him for not being in touch, but not nearly as harshly as usual. She asked Koujaku how he was, and Koujaku her. Tae-san was still recovering, but she seemed very much the stubborn old woman Koujaku had come to know, for which he was grateful.

When he called back the Benishigure members, they already knew what had happened. Apparently the accident had been on the news (Koujaku hadn’t watched it, luckily). They expressed their condolences and asked if Koujaku was holding up alright. Koujaku admitted that he’d been in a bit of a funk, but he felt a bit better now that some time had passed (he figured that was an easier explanation than his encounter with Clear). They seemed very relieved.

He was about to call Mizuki when, suddenly, Mizuki called him. Koujaku couldn’t help but smile at the coincidence before he answered.

“Koujaku, you finally picked up!” Mizuki cried. He’d opted not to use video chat for the call, apparently, for Koujaku could only hear his voice. Knowing Mizuki, he’d probably done it to respect Koujaku’s privacy. The gesture made him rather happy.

“Yeah,” he answered Mizuki, “Sorry about before. I wasn’t exactly feeling that well.”

Mizuki sighed, a sound of relief and exasperation combined.

“Well, I bet you weren’t.” He conceded. “I wasn’t either.” He paused. “To tell the truth I still feel pretty bad. It’s hard to believe he’s gone.”

“Mm-hm.” Koujaku replied, sadness tinging his voice. He knew that feeling too well.

“Hey, why don’t you come by Black Needle tonight?” Mizuki asked, voice brightening ever so slightly. “We can have a real talk, and you can relax a little, you know?”

“I’d love to come,” Koujaku began, “Although I've done more than enough, ah, “relaxing” this past week, if you get what I mean.”

Mizuki sighed again, this time sounding only of exasperation.

“I’ll remember you said that,” he huffed, “So don’t come in and try to convince me you need a drink.”

Koujaku surprised himself when he laughed.

“I won’t,” He promised Mizuki. “See you tonight.”

“You too, Koujaku.” Mizuki replied. “Take care.”

Koujaku could practically hear Mizuki’s smile in his goodbye, and smiled in turn as he ended the call.

He now had the rest of the day to go do something. He figured it would be best to try and get back into his normal routine. To begin, he went into the living room where Beni sat, eyes closed in sleep mode. Koujaku picked him up and turned him on manually, eliciting a small noise of complaint from the bird.

“Hey, I was sleeping!” Beni cried, irritated.

“You’ve done enough sleeping this week, Beni.” Koujaku pointed out lightly. Beni turned away, both sadly and crossly.

“Not much else to do around here,” he muttered.

“Well, I think it’s time to get out of the house a bit.” Koujaku began. “I’m going to Black Needle tonight, but before that, I was going to see if any customer I cancelled on was still available.”

Beni seemed shocked, to say the least.

“What brought this on, huh??” He questioned, flying out of Koujaku’s hand to hover in front of his face. “Did something happen while I was asleep?”

“Well…pretty much,” Koujaku admitted. “But it’s a long story.”

As he left his home, he felt a pang in his chest at the reminder that Aoba wasn’t there to kiss him goodbye before he went to work. He figured that the feeling wouldn’t go away for a long time.

~~~~~

As it turned out, a woman who’d wanted a few inches cut was, in fact, still available. Koujaku apologized for cancelling, telling her that he’d had a personal emergency. Luckily, she wasn’t angry with him in the slightest.

He managed to get in a few more appointments over the course of the day, and he spent the rest of the time cleaning and checking his stock. Looking over the various dyes reminded him that he’d probably have to relearn hair-dying a bit. Well, he acknowledged, he at least had the labels telling him which color was which, and Beni could always help him differentiate between shades. Still, he thought, he’d better hold off on dying hair until he figured it out. That irked him a bit, since dying hair brought more money than just cuts.

Even in death, Aoba had such a profound impact on his life, and in more ways than one.

As chipper as he was acting-and how good he did feel, now that he allowed himself to feel good-the loss of Aoba had by no means stopped hurting him. He was all too conscious of the fact that Aoba wouldn’t be waiting for him at home, or coming back from work after Koujaku, or coming to Black Needle with him. It still hurt. It probably would hurt for a long time.

The new dreariness of Koujaku’s now black and white world wasn’t really helping. He’d gained his color vision at such a young age that he’d taken it for granted his whole life. Perhaps that was the one caveat to meeting your soulmate when you’re very young: It makes it easier to take the colorful world for granted and harder to go without it when your soulmate is gone.

Koujaku mulled over these things as he walked to Black Needle later that night. He was glad to be going; back to all the friends he hadn’t been in contact with, and getting a chance to voice his feelings to Mizuki. Mizuki was nothing if not understanding, and Koujaku was happy to be able to talk to him.

When he arrived, Black Needle was crowded, but not claustrophobically so. He recognized a group of people, all of them members of Benishigure. They noticed him and practically swarmed him as he walked into the building. All of them were happy to see him-some of them a little too happy, given the scent of alcohol coming off them.

Koujaku talked and laughed with them for a few minutes, already feeling lighter at heart.

“Oh hey, Koujaku,” one member suddenly said, “Mizuki said he was expecting you. You should go let him know you’re here.”

“Sure,” Koujaku agreed, “I’ll talk to you guys later.” He waved goodbye amicably, and the others did the same.

Koujaku approached the bar counter and sat at his usual stool. It really hadn’t been that long since he’d last been at Black Needle, but he still felt very nostalgic. That week he kept himself locked away had felt more like a month, and Koujaku found how much nicer it was to be out and about.

Mizuki wasn’t behind the counter when Koujaku arrived. He’d most likely had to go in the back to get something he’d run out of in front. Sure enough, when he returned, he had a bottle with him. He didn’t see Koujaku at first as he set the bottle in its place on the shelf, but soon seemed to catch sight of his friend out of the corner of his eye. There was a smile and a greeting on his lips as he turned to Koujaku, but both died as soon as his eyes met those of his friend.

Koujaku felt similar to how Mizuki looked, and with good reason.

The moment the two had looked each other in the eye, color returned to Koujaku’s world.

Koujaku nearly fell off the barstool. Mizuki had gone pale. The two sat frozen, knowing logically what had happened but not being able to process it.

Koujaku knew what this meant. It meant Mizuki was his soulmate. But that was impossible. Aoba was Koujaku’s soulmate. He was dead now, but he was Koujaku’s soulmate. He was dead, so Koujaku shouldn’t be seeing color now. He shouldn’t have ever been able to see color again.

And why hadn’t Mizuki ever seen color before when he looked at Koujaku? Was it because Aoba had been there? How was it even possible for someone’s soulmate to be someone who already had a soulmate? On Koujaku’s end, how was it possible for someone to have two soulmates? How could this happen?

How could this happen?

They were friends. They were best friends. Not boyfriends. Not lovers. And definitely not soulmates. Why was this happening?

Koujaku fished for something to say, but drew a blank. Mizuki opened his mouth, closed it again and kept it closed. What could they possibly say to each other in a situation like this?

Aoba was dead but he was Koujaku’s soulmate and nothing should have been able to change that. Was he supposed to love Mizuki now? Was he supposed to stop loving Aoba now? Koujaku knew full well that neither was possible.

Each at a loss for words, the two men stared at each other hopelessly.

~~~~~

A few days later the two met again at Aoba’s funeral. After what had happened before Koujaku couldn’t bring himself to greet Mizuki. He evidently felt the same, for he made no effort to speak to Koujaku.

The funeral would have been earlier, Tae-san had said, if Koujaku had snapped out of his depressed stupor earlier. She wouldn’t dream of having the funeral when Koujaku couldn’t attend, she’d added. Koujaku was speechless at her kindness.

There were quite a few people there. Members of both Dry Juice and Benishigure, the ones who’d known Aoba well, had come. Haga-san was there, of course, and gave Koujaku a sad, knowing smile as he greeted him. Koujaku suspected that the older man was remembering the coil conversation the two had had on the day of Aoba’s death. Noiz had shown up (in a suit and tie, no less), much to Koujaku’s surprise. The boy didn’t cry, but his sadness was evident in his listless body language. Once the procession had moved outside, Koujaku spotted the three siblings who always showed up at Heibon to cause trouble hanging around at the edge of the cemetery, watching the procession intently. They were too far away for Koujaku to see the expressions on their faces, but their uncharacteristic stillness spoke volumes about their emotions regarding what happened. They dashed away, however, once they realized they were being watched. Koujaku thought of Clear as he watched them run.

Koujaku was still in a state of shock from what happened with Mizuki. He couldn’t even bring himself to look at the other man.

Aoba’s coffin was laid in the ground in vivid color and Koujaku, for the life of him, could not understand why.

**Author's Note:**

> WHOA PLOT TWIST
> 
> I hope I tricked you with the title. Betcha thought it was about how Koujaku's mom lied when he was little and said your color vision lasted forever once you met your soulmate. Or that it was just poetically describing Koujaku's feelings about Aoba and the situation. But no! It was foreshadowing! I'm so good at this writing thing give me all the awards
> 
> And I just realized, wow, I'm such a dick to Aoba. I was a dick to him in my last fic, and I was an even bigger dick to him in this one. At least he died quickly. But seriously, I love Aoba. I guess he gets into so much trouble in canon it only makes sense for the same thing to happen in fanfics. I can't explain what I did to Ren, though. I love Ren too, both as a dog and a human. I guess I'm a little sadistic at heart.
> 
> Also, the bit with Clear was more or less thrown in spontaneously. Originally Koujaku was gonna just snap out of it himself, but I thought adding Clear in was better. I got the image of him sitting outside, just sadly singing, and I had to write it out. Where did he run off to, you ask? Why didn't he go to Aoba's funeral, you ask? I have my own answers to these questions, none of them pretty, but I'll let you decide for yourself.
> 
> Finally, apologies to any MizuKou fans that are reading this and desperately wishing this wasn't a oneshot. Sorry, but I never planned for this to be longer than that. I have no clue how I'd develop their relationship anyhow, and besides, cliffhangers are more fun (for the writer, anyway)! If anyone wants to write a continuation, however, they're welcome to do so, provided they let me know so I can read it and sing their praises... >.>
> 
> The inspiration for this fic came out of nowhere, so I can't say when I'll have something else up, or what it might be. But there will be something else, so hang tight if you enjoyed this (or not)!


End file.
